Bigert
& Bergström’s exhibition The Drought continues the duo’s investigation into
various climatic threats and how man and earth respond to them.
The
works originate from two research trips in the Mediterranean region; one to the
ancient salt pans of Margherita di Savoia on the Adriatic coast of Italy, and
one to the newly built desalination plant at the Llobregat River outside
Barcelona in Spain.
The
crystal photo sculptures, inverted space molecule and glass montages document
the sites of these opposites where fresh water scarcity is the premise for
production. One facility subtracts the salt and the other extracts it from the
enormous basin of the sea. Salt, once a precious commodity that got its name
from the word salary because it was used as payment for Roman soldiers, is now
often a substance associated with contaminated freshwater reservoirs. The two locations
reflect both the desperation involved in tackling the recurring heat waves of
the region and the newfound profits being made in a landscape of transition.
Other
parts of the project are two sculptures. The looped hourglass, blown out of
proportion and filled with 100 kg of salt, conjures a deus ex machina
suggesting that we have infinite time on our hands to grapple with the crisis
of an atmosphere in flux. The other is a large, ceiling-hung mobile, which
balances its rotating hourglasses against a large white brain. Here, thought
and time fight for equilibrium in an ocean of air.
During
the summer of 2013 the exhibition was shown at the Castle of Barletta, as part
of the larger project Watershed, organized by the Italian art organization
Eclettica International. In September-October 2013 parts of the project are
being exhibited at Contexts in Paris. In November-December 2013 at Niklas
Belenius Gallery, Stockholm. In January-March 2014 the project will be
presented at Varberg Kunsthall, Sweden.
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| Salt Beach No Wind UV-printed photo on three-layer glass, aluminum, wooden frame 160 x 100 x 6 cm Bigert & Bergström 2013 |
Cold Dark Matter: An Exploded View is the restored contents of a garden shed exploded by the British Army at the request of the artist Cornelia Parker. The surviving pieces have been used by Parker to create an installation suspended from the ceiling as if held mid-explosion. Lit by a single lightbulb the fragments cast dramatic shadows on the gallery’s walls. In an interview with Tate curator Michaela Parkin, Parker suggested that an explosion was something she had wanted to do for a long time. To her, an explosion is an ‘archetypal’ image, familiar to us from childhood to adult life: Somehow the idea and imminence of the ‘explosion’ in society seemed such an iconic thing. You were being constantly bombarded with its imagery, from the violence of the comic strip, through action films, in documentaries about Super Novas and the Big Bang, and least of all on the news in never ending reports of war. Parker liked the idea of something that happened...
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